PhD research on long term impact

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“I’m very unsure about my future. I’m not getting satisfaction or happiness. I’m frustrated.”

These words were typical of the comments made in face-to face interviews with 67 employees that were about to attend a self-development programme presented by “FreeTo Grow”. The interviews formed part of the pre-test for the Doctoral research in Adult Education and underscored the findings of a standardised questionnaire designed to measure empowerment status of individuals.

The feelings that were expressed indicated:

• dissatisfaction,
• lack of assertiveness,
• inability to cope,
• lack of control and
• fear of failure. 

The programme

 The “Free To Grow” programme was selected for evaluation due to the fact that it claims to empower people and subjective evaluations seemed to suggest success. 

This programme offers a process of personal and interpersonal development in four one-day sessions presented over consecutive weeks to provide maximum opportunity for practical application.  The content of these sessions has been specifically selected to focus on relevant every day problems and challenges. The methodology is based on principles of accelerated and experiential learning and is characterized by a high level of individual participation. 

Background to the research

In the course of the research, the measuring tool – a questionnaire – was developed to provide statistical information to plot the three levels of empowerment namely the Micro-level, Interface level and Macro-level.

• Micro-level refers to feelings of self-efficacy, self-confidence, positive self-concept, leadership, coping skills, sense of agency and personal responsibility.
• Interface level refers to amongst others, mutual respect and support, caring, individual assertiveness, ability to make a difference, problem solving and decision-making.
• Macro-level relates to their beliefs in their ability to take action to effect change.

The questionnaire was applied in the Western Cape (South Africa) in Metropolitan Life, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Distillers Corporation, The Foschini Group, Helderberg Municipality and HomeChoice where “Free To Grow” was presented.  The eight groups that were monitored varied in size between 8 and 15 participants each.

The measurement took place at three different times:

1. Before the course to serve as a baseline measure,
2. Directly after the course to observe the changes in their empowerment due to the intervention programme and
3. Three months after completion of the programme to determine the long-term effects on the individual participants. 

Each time the questionnaire was applied, an in-depth interview was conducted with a randomly selected sample of participants to check the accuracy of the responses to the questionnaire and to gain greater insight into the personal experiences of individuals.

General characteristics of the sample

• Gender: slightly more (55%) females than males. 
• Age: mean age - 33.9 years. 
• Period of employment with the company: six months to a year for the majority of the respondents (45%)
• Educational level: between Grade 8 and 12 for most.  Seven percent had an education level below grade 7.

Findings of the Impact

 In terms of the participants’ levels of empowerment, the respondents seemed to gain the most benefit from the course on the Micro-level and the Macro-level with highly statistically significant improvement from before the course to after the course. This was retained after the 3-month period.  They therefore gained in feelings of motivation, self-respect, and self-sufficiency as well as feelings of increased control.

The following figure indicates the empowerment status of the total sample prior to the intervention (Pre-test), directly after the course (Post-test) and three months after the programme (Post-post test).

The characteristics of the group after exposure to “Free To Grow” (POST-TEST) were identified by applying Factor analysis to the data from the empowerment questionnaire. This helps to specifically identify the areas on the three levels of empowerment where the participants experienced the greatest benefits from the self-development programme.

The features that emerged prominently as areas of growth were:

• improved decision-making ability 
• a more positive view of the opportunities that they have in life
• improved coping skills
• more ambition regarding their promotion prospects
• greater control over the way they work with their money
• greater sense of control over their present and potential resources
• increased motivation to be part of working towards their goals
• a greater feeling of control over what happens in their lives
• more confidence in their abilities in the workplace
• increased sense of personal responsibility

The characteristics that were identified after three months when the employees had the opportunity to return to their life circumstances, indicated the retention that took place after the programme due in part to the influence of the training programme.  The features evident indicate that they:

• have gained insight into cognitive aspects in their relationships with others
• have a more positive self-concept
• have increased levels of self-respect
• have retained the improved self-confidence that was evident directly after the course
• have increased awareness of external issues in terms of their political rights (which was negative previously)
• are more proactive,
• have more initiative
• have greater motivation to seize opportunities that present themselves
• have more skills to personally take responsibility for planning their future 
• are more open to make their needs known
• are more assertive 
• feel they have control over things that affect them.

The growth regarding empowerment on the interface level in the group with the lowest educational level (the majority of the 11 participants had less than grade 7) is of special interest.  After three months (long term) there was a statistically significant improvement when compared to the scores of the pre-test.  The following figure graphically depicts the scores of the 11 participants of this group on the three testing occasions.

Thus the “Free To Grow” intervention helped to not only empower the participants through the programme, but also to equip them with the tools to maintain changes and incorporate them in their lives.  This finding is in contrast with general theories in adult education that short-term benefits are commonly found after interventions of this nature, but that these gains tend to diminish in the long term after the initial ‘feel good’ factor has warn off.  It is clear that “Free To Grow” helps in sustaining long-term benefits in participants. 

This is partly due to their adherence to the 5 principles for effective empowerment interventions as cited in the literature:

• centrality of the individual,
• bolstering self-esteem,
• success with small goals,
• use of natural support network and
• skill development.

In conclusion, an objective measuring instrument can give insights into the impact of self-development programmes on participants in both the long and short term in order to monitor growth and increase accountability.  In so doing there is a balancing of the needs of management and workers by ensuring that standards of services are maintained and that workers are not exploited by exposure to poor quality programmes which ultimately frustrate and disempower them.  Interesting patterns of empowerment can be observed in order to gain insight into the development of human capacity.